Social cognitive theory (SCT), used in psychology, education, and communication, holds that portions of an individual's knowledge acquisition can be directly related to observing others within the context of social interactions, experiences, and outside media influences. This theory was advanced by Albert Bandura as an extension of his social learning theory. The theory states that when people observe a model performing a behavior and the consequences of that behavior, they remember the sequence of events and use this information to guide subsequent behaviors. Observing a model can also prompt the viewer to engage in behavior they already learned.Bandura, A., Social foundations of thought and action : a social cognitive theory. 1986, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Bandura, A. (2008). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. In J. Bryant & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (pp. 94–124). New York, NY: Routledge. Depending on whether people are rewarded or punished for their behavior and the outcome of the behavior, the observer may choose to replicate behavior modeled. Media provides models for a vast array of people in many different environmental settings.
History The foundations of social cognitive theory come from Edwin B. Holt and Harold Chapman Brown's 1931 work Animal Drive and the Learning Process, an essay toward radical empiricism. This book theorizes that all animal action is based on fulfilling the psychological needs of "feeling, emotion, and desire." The most notable component of this theory is that a person cannot learn to how to imitate until they are imitated.
In 1941, Neal E. Miller and John Dollard presented their book with a revision of Holt's social learning and imitation theory. They argued four factors contribute to learning: drives, cues, responses, and rewards. One driver is social motivation, which includes imitativeness, the process of matching an act to an appropriate cue of where and when to perform the act. A behavior is imitated depending on whether the model receives positive or negative response consequences. Miller and Dollard argued that if one were motivated to learn a particular behavior, then that particular behavior would be learned through clear observations. By imitating these observed actions the individual observer would solidify that learned action and would be rewarded with positive reinforcement, a positive consequence to certain behavior.
According to Albert Bandura, the widely researched topics of behaviorism up until then had certain discrepancies. He was inspired by the work done by Miller and Dollard to explore this further. Bandura, along with his students and colleagues conducted a study, known as the Bobo doll experiment, in 1961 and 1963 to find out why and when children display aggressive behaviors. These studies demonstrated the value of modeling for acquiring novel behaviors. These studies helped Bandura publish his seminal article and book in 1977 that expanded on the idea on how behavior is acquired, and thus further explored Miller and Dollard's research. In Bandura's 1977 article, he claimed that Social Learning Theory shows a direct correlation between a person's perceived self-efficacy and behavioral change. Self-efficacy comes from four sources: "performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states".Frances Davidson (Producer), & Davidson, J. (Director). (2003). Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory: An Introduction. [Video/DVD] Davidson Films. Retrieved from https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/bandura-s-social-cognitive-theory-an-introduction
In 1986, Bandura published his second book, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory which introduced the triadic causation model. He called the new theory social cognitive theory. Bandura changed the name to emphasize the major role cognition plays in encoding and performing behaviors. In this book, Bandura argued that human behavior is caused by personal, behavioral, and environmental influences.
In 2001, Bandura brought SCT to mass communication in his journal article that stated the theory could be used to analyze how "symbolic communication influences human thought, affect and action". The theory shows how new behavior diffuses through society through psychosocial factors governing the acquisition and adoption of the behavior.
In 2011, Bandura published a book chapter The Social and Policy Impact of Social Cognitive Theory to extend SCT's application in health promotion and urgent global issues, which provides insight into addressing global problems through a macro social lens, aiming at improving equality of individuals' lives under the umbrellas of SCT.
In 2016, Bandura published his final book, Moral disengagement : How people do harm and live with themselves. In this book he used SCT to look at how people disengaged themselves from the harm they do. By using causes people see as worthy, they justify harmful actions.
SCT has been applied across different fields of study including psychology, education, mass communications, and healthcare.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to many people in relations to global health and has prompted a reexamination of human behavior and social responses through social cognitive theory. The pandemic has changed numerous different facets of society, including the way people behave. Research applying social cognition theories may assist in explaining variance in these behaviors and inform the development of efficacious behavior change interventions to promote adherence.
Current status Social Cognitive Theory originated in psychology, but based on an unofficial November 2013 Google Scholar search, only 2 percent of articles published on SCT are in the pure psychology field. About 20 percent of articles are from Education and 16 percent from Business. The majority of publications using SCT, 56 percent, come from the field of Applied Health Psychology. The majority of current research in Health Psychology focuses on testing SCT in behavioral change campaigns as opposed to expanding on the theory. Campaign topics include: increasing fruit and vegetable intake, increasing physical activity,Freigoun, Mohammad T., César A. Martín, Alicia B. Magann, Daniel E. Rivera, Sayali S. Phatak, Elizabeth V. Korinek, and Eric B. Hekler. "System identification of Just Walk: A behavioral mHealth intervention for promoting physical activity." In American Control Conference (ACC), 2017, pp. 116-121. IEEE, 2017. HIV education, and breastfeeding.
Born in 1925, Bandura spent his life influencing the world with expansions of SCT. His recent work, published May 2011, focuses on how SCT impacts areas of both health and population in relation to climate change.Bandura, A. (2011). The Social and Policy Impact of Social Cognitive Theory. In M. Mark, S. Donaldson, & B. Campbell (Eds.), Social Psychology and Evaluation. (pp. 33-70). New York, NY:Guilford Press. He proposes that these problems could be solved through television serial dramas that show models similar to viewers performing the desired behavior. On health, Bandura writes that currently there is little incentive for doctors to write prescriptions for healthy behavior, but he believes the cost of fixing health problems start to outweigh the benefits of being healthy. Bandura argues that we are on the cusp of moving from a disease model (focusing on people with problems) to a health model (focusing on people being healthy) and SCT is the theory that should be used to further a healthy society. Specifically on Population, Bandura states that population growth is a global crisis because of its correlation with depletion and degradation of our planet's resources. Bandura argues that SCT should be used to increase birth control use, reduce gender inequality through education, and to model environmental conservation to improve the state of the planet.
Overview Social cognitive theory, developed by Albert Bandura, is a learning theory based on the assumption that the environment one grows up in contributes to behavior, and the individual person (and therefore cognition) is just as important. People learn by observing others, with the environment, behavior, and cognition acting as primary factors that influence development in a reciprocal triadic relationship. Each behavior witnessed can change a person's way of thinking (cognition). Similarly, the environment one is raised in may influence later behaviors. For example, a caregiver's mindset (also cognition) determines the environment in which their children are raised.
The core concepts of this theory are explained by Bandura through a schematization of triadic reciprocal causation. According to this model, learning occurs through direct exposure and observational learning. People are not only products of their environment but they also have the power to produce their own environment. So there is an interplay between behavior, environment, and personal. The schema shows how the reproduction of an observed behavior is influenced by getting the learner to believe in his or her personal abilities to correctly complete a behavior. Behavioral: The response an individual receives after they perform a behavior (i.e. Provide chances for the learner to experience successful learning as a result of performing the behavior correctly). Environmental: Aspects of the environment or setting that influence the individual's ability to successfully complete a behavior (i.e. Make environmental conditions conducive for improved self-efficacy by providing appropriate support and materials). Personal: an individual's internal factors that influence their behavior, such as their beliefs, attitudes, and self-efficacy
Theoretical foundations
Human agency
Social cognitive theory is proposed in an agentic perspective, which suggests that, instead of being just shaped by environments or inner forces, individuals are self-developing, self-regulating, self-reflecting and proactive. Specifically, human agency operates within three modes:
Individual Agency: A person's own influence on the environment; Proxy Agency: Another person's effort on securing the individual's interests; Collective Agency: A group of people work together to achieve the common benefits.
Human agency has four core properties:
Intentionality: Individuals' active decision on engaging in certain activities; Forethought: Individuals' ability to anticipate the outcome of certain actions; Self-reactiveness: Individuals' ability to construct and regulate appropriate behaviors; Self-reflectiveness: Individuals' ability to reflect and evaluate the soundness of their cognitions and behaviors.
Human capability
Evolving over time, human beings are featured with advanced neural systems, which enable individuals to acquire knowledge and skills by both direct and symbolic terms. Four primary capabilities are addressed as important foundations of social cognitive theory: symbolizing capability, self-regulation capability, self-reflective capability, and vicarious capability.
Symbolizing Capability: Symbols such as language, images, and sounds are used to convey meaning and create shared understanding among people. Symbolizing capability helps people to comprehend and interpret the messages conveyed. People are affected not only by direct experience but also indirect events. Instead of merely learning through laborious trial-and-error process, human beings are able to symbolically perceive events conveyed in messages, construct possible solutions, and evaluate the anticipated outcomes. Symbols are used as a means of communication with others. In essence, symbolizing capabilities facilitate learning and behavior modeling based on observations made in the environment, which can then be used to guide one's own behavior.